With deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein declaring that he wants to die by a firing squad, we cast a glance back at the life and death of the worst tyrants of the 20th century.

Adolf Hitler
April 20, 1889 -- April 30, 1945

Who: The man who created and rode a jingoism wave after the post-World War I humiliation of Germany to become one of the cruellest dictators, and one of the worst leaders of modern history.

He wanted to rule the world -- and at one point of time his armies almost did, before being defeated by the Allies, led by Britain, in World War II. He ordered a genocide in which about 11 million people were killed, including 6 million Jews, mostly in inhuman concentration camps.

How he died: Committed suicide in his underground bunker in Berlin with his companion, Eva Braun, in the last days of World War II.